IRVINE, Calif. - UC San Diego has earned The Big West’s 2023 baseball championship outright.

Picked eighth in the preseason coaches’ poll ahead of just its third campaign of NCAA Division I and The Big West membership, the Tritons assured themselves at least a share of the crown back on Sunday, May 21, moments after completing a three-game sweep at UC Riverside to round out its 2023 schedule, when 2022 champion UC Santa Barbara dropped its home finale to Cal Poly, 9-5.

Cal State Fullerton and UCSB still entered the final week of the regular season tied for second place and in position to match UC San Diego (21-9), each at 18-9 with the Tritons on their conference bye. The Gauchos, however, lost their opener late Friday night at Hawai’i to bow out of the running, and the Titans were edged on Saturday at Cal Poly, 5-4, following back-to-back wins in San Luis Obispo to clinch the league’s automatic NCAA Championship bid. UC San Diego is still ineligible for postseason play this year and next as it completes an NCAA-mandated four-year reclassification period.

This is the first Big West crown in any sport for UC San Diego, which will celebrate its baseball program in front of the Price Center on the La Jolla campus on Wednesday afternoon, May 31, at 12 p.m. In a 12th season at the helm, head coach Eric Newman masterminded a remarkable achievement. The Tritons won their first seven Big West games to get out of the gate hot, but suffered a home sweep to UCSB in late April, and in early May, lost 10-1 and 11-0 again at home to CSUN to surrender that series as well.

Wrapped around that setback to the Matadors, UC San Diego rattled off three Big West sweeps, all on the road. The Sunday blanking on Senior Day to CSUN left the third-place Tritons 3.5 games back of Fullerton with a season-long seven-game road stretch to round out the year. UC San Diego managed to win all seven, including sweeps at Goodwin Field over Fullerton and in Riverside over the Highlanders.

All in all, Newman’s Tritons went 34-18 and won six of their 10 Big West sets, each in sweeping fashion. Even prior to that perfect seven-game road stretch to wrap things up, came a season-best 12-game win streak from March 10-31. UC San Diego’s 2023 season fittingly began on national television, on the MLB Network against Grand Canyon to kick off the MLB Desert Invitational in Phoenix, Ariz. The Tritons went 1-3 at that high-profile event against 2022 NCAA Championship participants, routing Michigan, 11-2, on Feb. 18, before falling to No. 2 Tennessee and dropping a narrow 9-8 decision to another 2021 College World Series qualifier in Arizona. For the second successive edition of its Trolley Series rivalry set with eventual Mountain West regular-season co-champion San Diego State, the Tritons won three out of four.

UC San Diego has been no stranger to trophies under Newman’s leadership. The program had become a national powerhouse at the Division II level before its move. The Tritons won back-to-back-to-back Division II West Region crowns in 2017, 2018 and 2019, with Newman the ABCA/Diamond Division II West Region Coach of the Year for all three seasons. The 2017 Division II runner-up, UC San Diego was vying for the first national title in program history in its final Division II go-around in 2020 before the COVID-19 pandemic ended that pursuit.

Also a two-time California Collegiate Athletic Association (CCAA) Coach of the Year during the program’s Division II days, Newman would be the favorite for a first Big West Coach of the Year distinction, with those announcements coming this Thursday, June 1.

UC San Diego was largely led by its veteran core this year, with the fifth-year senior tandem of utility Michael Fuhrman and right-handed pitcher Michael Mitchell the longest-standing members of the program. Fuhrman batted .287 with team highs of 44 runs and 10 steals to go along with 11 doubles, three triples, eight home runs and 36 RBI, while Mitchell, still somewhat limited after missing the entire 2022 season through injury, posted a 4-1 win-loss record and 1.42 ERA over 44.1 innings with 42 strikeouts against just seven walks. Fourth-year senior southpaw Izaak Martinez (6-1, 2.84 ERA) was a do-it-all out of the bullpen, twice saving all three games of a road series sweep and finishing with eight saves over the last nine appearances to rank second in The Big West with nine. Newcomer Doyle Kane hit .327 with 14 doubles and 39 RBI, and true freshman Brandon Larson slugged .537 with team bests of nine home runs and 45 RBI.

The 64-team field of the 2023 NCAA Division I Baseball Championship will once again be unveiled on Memorial Day this Monday, May 29, from 9-10 a.m. PT, live on ESPN2 and ESPN+.